Mineral Resources (DMR) Minister Susan Shabangu will on 16 and 17 August 2012 host a Women-in-Mining Lekgotla at the Birchwood Conference Centre in Boksburg, Johannesburg.
The Lekgotla will be hosted under the theme: "Safety, security and comfort for women in mining: Towards a programme of action for women by women," and will see the convergence of core women mine workers, mine managers, operational managers and executives to discuss and map a guideline for the department as it seeks to address issues of safety and transformation in the mining industry.
It is envisage that the Lekgotla will also provide a blueprint for new gender sensitive health and safety standards for the South African mining industry.
As part of its National Women's month activities the department convenes this Lekgotla alive to the reality that women continue to face discrimination in the workplace. Key to the Lekgotla is the continued call for meaningful transformation not only at ownership level, but also relating to the culture and attitudes in the workplace.
The department has created this platform for women to share their workplace experiences and the best practices that their respective companies have implemented which have yielded results. The objective being to develop a programme of action for mining companies in South Africa as the department seeks to transform the sector.
The Lekgotla will culminate in a gala dinner which will be hosted in honour of Dr. Nkosazana-Dlamini-Zuma who was recently appointed as the first woman Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
The gala dinner will also celebrate South African fashion and jewellery design, in partnership with African Fashion International and AngloGold Ashanti. The department will treat delegates to a showcase of the latest spring collection from the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week featuring South African designers blended with AngloGold Ashanti's latest jewellery collection.
AngloGold Ashanti will show a selection of 35 gold jewellery pieces from its auditions gold couture collection. The pieces hail from the earliest to the newest collections and will be presented as a runway show during the Lekgotla. The selection includes pieces from the Urban Tribes 2009/10 and Urban Tribes 2.0 2011/12 season, Kinetic Architecture 2007/08, Fire 2004, the Four Season’s 2003 and the Liquid Sunshine collection of 2002.
Auditions is the world’s biggest gold design competition and is held biennially in South Africa, Brazil and China to inspire innovation in gold design and catalyse sustainable beneficiation.
"AngloGold Ashanti supports the Department of Mineral Resources’ vision for Women-in- mining and is proud to participate in the Lekgotla,” says Yedwa Simelane, Senior Vice-President of Corporate Affairs for AngloGold Ashanti. She added that, “Gender parity is a key value of our company and we have made significant progress in addressing issues affecting women in this historically male dominated industry".
Media are invited to attend the opening of the Lekgotla on 16 August at 9h00 and should indicate with their RSVP if they are interested in attending the gala dinner as well.
RSVPs may be done with Trevor Hattingh on 072 616 0076 / Trevor.Hattingh@dmr.gov.za or Solomon Phetla on 076 765 3863 / Solomon.Phetla@dmr.gov.za before close of business on August 15.
For any further enquiries please contact:
Zingaphi Jakuja
Cell: 082 766 3940
Department of Mineral Resources to host two day Women in Mining Lekgotla
